S

tate-run railway operator Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) will disburse the remaining half of its Rp 8.5 trillion (US$ 646 million) capital expenditure allocated for this year to buy trains for major projects, including high-speed trains, light rapid transit (LRT) and airport railways.

KAI logistics and development director Budi Noviantoro said the firm had disbursed around half of the capital expenditure in the first semester and would use the remaining half for projects in Sumatra and Java.

“The capital will be used to develop our own projects in Sumatra as well as state-assigned projects in both Sumatra and Java,” he said on the sidelines of a grant signing ceremony with the US Embassy in Jakarta on Friday.

The firm’s projects include a coal transportation service in South Sumatra that will be used by state miner Bukit Asam; an LRT project in Palembang, South Sumatra; train services for Minangkabau International Airport in West Sumatra and Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten; as well as a high-speed train from Bandung in West Java to Jakarta.

Noviantoro said KAI would buy train cars and provide some tracks, while most of the railways would be laid by the projects’ developers.

Train cars expected to be bought in the second semester and in the near future include those for the LRT project and high-speed train. The LRT is expected to be completed in early 2018 so that it can be used for the Asian Games in June.

“We’ve opened tenders for the LRT and invited local train manufacturers as well as those from China, South Korea and Japan to join the tender,” Noviantoro said.

Trains for major airports, meanwhile, have been bought. Two trains, comprising four cars each, have been purchased from state-run train manufacturer INKA and Swedish train-maker Bombardier Transportation for Soekarno-Hatta airport; while three trains comprising 12 cars were purchased from INKA for Minangkabau airport.

The government assigned both projects to the firm to improve public transportation systems, such as train services for Kuala Namu International Airport in North Sumatra, which began operations in 2013.

For coal trains, meanwhile, KAI has bought 300 new cars, mostly from the US, to serve the Sumatra track this year. To date, KAI has around 3,000 coal and goods cars, mostly imported from the US.

KAI, operating around 5,000 kilometers of railways in Java and Sumatra, has enjoyed double-digit growth in the past few years thanks to modernized services. It made Rp 13.9 trillion in revenue and Rp 1.3 trillion in profit last year.

On Friday, it received a $515,000 grant from the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) to train the company’s executives for a year in creating a new railway maintenance system.

Noviantoro said train system machinery and equipment currently in use was new and hence maintenance systems abroad had also been developing, so the firm must adjust its own systems.

“With an improved rail maintenance system, all trains are hoped to travel up to 120 km per hour. Today, many are still running at 80 to 100 km per hour,” he said.

USTDA regional manager for Asia, Mark J. Dunn, said the opportunity to conduct technical assistance for KAI would be available through Federal Business Opportunities posted on ustda.gov soon.

“We do have an existing partnership with KAI and as an agency with a role to promote infrastructure and economic development around the world, we regularly meet KAI to figure out their priorities,” Dunn said. In 2011, the USTDA granted $600,000 to KAI to improve signal systems.